The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-31

1
other unhoiy war of conquest. This wanton and
i lustful act stirred the Northern people profound
ly. and they gave the war but half hearted
| of the slave power to secure the fruits of their
victory over Mexico that reduced the Northern
patience to the vanishing point. By the treaty
| OF Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico ceded to the
United States an area equal to that of the thir-
| teen original States. In this territory slavery
had been abolished by the laws of Mexico AL
though the Northern people were not disposed to
interfere with slavery in the accepted slave
States, conceding property in slaves to be a
vested right guaranteed by the organic law and
| protected by the lex loci, they hated the system
none the less and determined that these new
territories acquired from Mexico should never
be polluted with traffic in human flesh. The slave
power determined otherwise. What was the
| Mexican war fort In 1920, in the Missouri Com
| promise, the line Of go 80. Mason and Dix
| on's line. divided the free territory from the
| slave in the Louisiana purchase, and extended to
| the Rocky mountains. The South now determined
to run this line through to the Pacific. dividing
California into two parts. But in this they were
unsuccessful. Finally, the celebrated compro-
| mise of 1850 was made. which, though it prosti-
| tuted the honor of the Nation, luled the North
| into a sense of fanced security By this
! promise it agreed that the slave trade
should be abolished from the District of Column
! bia, that California should be admitted as free
State which, by the way, could not be very we'll
helped. as the gold hunters were nearly all from
| the North. the State of Texas was to receive ten
millions Of dollars for releasing her claim on the
Territory of New Mexico, to which she had not the
shadow of a right fugitive slave law. Infamous
in its severity was to be enacted and enforced
by the national government; and, finally, the
| Territories of New Mexico and Utah were to be
| organized with clause in their tons
| forbidding the Legislatures to enact laws of any
| character whatever regarding slavery.
The slave power now relgned supreme. It
! dared all things and, in 1854 repealed the time
| honored Missouri Compromise, asserting the
doctrine that the people of each Territory sh ould
! be left to decide the matter for themselves,
| without congressional interference Under
this flag, the Shareholders assaulted Kansas,
| frNv xuht oh fho had
| cluded them. Once more the hlibusterers were
! called upon, and tho soil of Kansas invaded
| by bands of Southern desperadoes and cut
| throats. Northern free emigration societies were
organized. Civil war resulted. but. hap
| PLY, Kansas was saved to freedom. This
snrased and n chagrned the slave ave
! been aggressive now become revolutionary
| The slave power was struggling against fate.
| m ust break away from the Union or slavery was
| doomed. The North had become practically
! unit in opposition. They found a poor pretext
| in the election of a Free-sol President. AS early
| as 1855 it was announced in the House of Rep
! -esentatives that if the Northern idea should
| triumph in the next election the South would
| secede. They thus made the total destruction
| of republican government the condition OF their
| remaining in the Union. No civilized nation
! was ever subjected to a more unprovoked out
rage. The South was constantly complaining
I of Northern aggression, Abolitionists' agta-
| ton, as they chose to call it. And yet
can read the history of this country without
| marveling at the forbearance of the North; a
| forbearance which at one time descended to
abject humility. The inconceivable greed of
! the slave power brought their ruin. They
! made their demands with arrogance and
| forced them with violence. The opposition
| how ever feeble, which manifested in
| the North against this growing des-
potsm. they hypocritically denounced
as crusade against Southern rights. And yet
despite the vast amount of muddy assertion
the contrary the fact remains that no bill, reso-
luton or measure was introduced in either
House of Congress from the formation of the
Constitution to the civil war which looked to the
abolition of slavery in any of the States where it
existed. The Northern people, devoted to the
| Union. resigned themselves to slavery as an in
evitabe evil, which existed by virtue of a COM
promise in the Constitution and was coexistant
| with the very life of the government. But there
| were others who did not hesitate to denounce
| agreement with hell. The Northern people,
| through this reverence for law, fooled by
! the South to the top of their bent. The slave
power. ignoring the economical, moral and social
effects of slavery, refused to discuss it otherwise
| thar a purely Constitutional question. Cal
| houn was especially distin guished for his in
genuity in constituting away the liberties of mill
| ions of people. But it should never be forgot
ten that those very Southern leaders who dis
coursed with such ford rhetoric of the rights of
the South. and who were so perpetuaily complain
ing OF the aggressions of the North were the very
men who struck a blow at the trade of this coun
try by cutting off all commercial intercourse for
| a half century with Hayti, because that country
had emancipated its slaves. They were the men
who assaulted the fundamental principles of free
in Congress through the passage of the Atherton
gag law They were the men who denied the
right of petition to not only millions of individ-
nails, but who even rejected remonstranceS
the slavery question that emanated from
legislatures of various "sovereign" States
| They were the men who framed the fugitive
slave law of 1850, which suspended the right of
trial by jury, and which presumed every negro
brought before the court to be a slave until the
contrary proved They were the men who
put premium upon the kidnapping of free citi-
Zens by giving United States commissioner
$40 when a negro was found to be a fugitive
slave. and only S. when he was found to be free
They were the men who struck down
United States Senate. because he dared.
prerogative as a United States Senator, to de-
nouuce the crime against Kansas They were
the men who threatened with pistols and bowie
knives the Abolitionists who had the courage to
denounce their inhuman cruelty. They were
the men who placed price of $40. 900 upon the
heads of William Lloyd Garrison and Joshua r.
Giddings. if those men were delivered dead or
alive in the State of Virginia. They were the
men who, while prattling Of constitutional
rights and of their honor, violated every pro-
vision of the great charter of liberties and
sought cowardly refuge from reason behind
the bulwark of parliamentary privilege They
were the men who, while prating of their honor.
were the thieves of other mems labor. and paid
the wages of toll in the lashes Of the whip But
it may be asked why the North. for fifty years,
conceded 20 arrogance what justice should have
denied. Alas! the fidelity Of the average North
politician to the South became degrading
sycophancy So eager and thankful were they
for the crumbs which fell from the Southern
table. and despairing of obtaining the crumbs
elsewhere, they suffered themselves to become
the supple tools Of the slave power.
These men. whom John Randolph denounced
as doughfaces. whom John Quincy Adams called
the ''Swiss guards of slavery fighting for pay"
were n race of place hunters. bastard to the soil,
to whom Office was the emo, not the means, and
| whose craftsmanship, like that of the Augustan
Senate consisted in justifylne personal fiat
! terry by speculative principles of servitude
And when war finally came. these inverte-
brates were true neither to themselves. their
| States nor their own country. If they believed
in the doctrine of nationality. they were morally
bound TO support the national If they
! believed in States rights they were still bound
| TO support the national arms, because their
| States were loyal In truth. they were left
| without apology They were merely bigoted
advocates of slavery, and could support their
treason neither moral nor logical grounds.
| But what sh all we say of the Southern leaders,
l Thay n Mead NJ irhAr iRnnranca onnraSSiOQ